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Teaching Beginners To Hurdle

By Ron Parker

The following article is an excerpted chapter from
the new book, Getting Started in Track & Field: A Coaching Manual, by Canadian
coach Ron Parker. This book was originally written by Parker in the 1970's, but
he has rewritten it completely and provided all-new illustrations and photo
sequences (all in color in the book). For coaches of youngsters, this is "must"
reading. The book is available from Tafnews Press (Book Division of Track &
Field News), 2570 El Camino Real, Suite 606, Mountain View, CA 94040 USA.
$20.00, plus $2.50 postage/handling.

HURDLING-IN SIMPLE TERMS

The objective in the hurdles is to sprint the distance between
the starting line and the finish line as fast as possible while clearing 8 to 10
barriers. Hurdling is sprinting over small barriers. The
most important motor skill to learn in order to hurdle well is the sequence of
clearing first the lead leg and then the trailing leg over the hurdle. This
sequence must be done very quickly and with a minimum of clearance height over
the barriers so the hurdlers can return their feet to the track to continue
sprinting.

STARTING YOUNG HURDLERS

The key to teaching hurdling to young athletes is
repetition. Constant repetition over a few hurdles, day after day, gives the
best results.

A. Beginning Using
non-weighted or scissors hurdles that can adjust down to 46 cm. (1 ft., 6 in.)
in height, set up four lanes of hurdles with the following heights and spacing
(Table 1).Each flight should have three or four hurdles. As many as 20 or
more hurdlers can be training at the same time using this method.

lane 3

46 cm. height

11 m. to first hurdle

8 m. between hurdles

lane 4

53 cm. height

11 m. to first hurdle

8.7 m. between hurdles

lane 5

61 cm. height

11 m. to first hurdle

9.5 m. between hurdles

lane 6

69 cm. height

12 m. to first hurdle

10.2 m. between
hurdles

Table 1

Instruct the athletes to run with an
exaggerated knee lift over the lane 3 hurdles taking five steps between the
hurdles. It doesn't matter how big or small the athlete is, they start with lane
3. If the athlete is already familiar with hurdling then he would go on to a
more difficult lane. In all likelihood, the athletes will
initially run and jump, run and jump. Therefore constant emphasis must be placed
on stepping over the hurdles and running with high knees over the
hurdles. Also, instruct the athletes to clear the trailing
leg by lifting the knee high and out to the side under the arm with the knee in
a higher position than the foot. The action of the lead leg is quite different;
the knee is driven high in front of the chest toward the hurdle with the foot
being snapped up just high enough to clear the hurdle.
Stride length at this time should be fairly short (five steps between the
hurdles) concentrating on rhythm and not speed. As the athletes warm up and are
able to do the first lane with ease, instruct them to move to the next lane,
progressively running faster. The athletes also are likely
to stop in front of each hurdle and hop over with considerably diminished speed.
Correct this by instructing them to go forward not up over the
hurdles. The hurdlers should do six to twelve flights of
hurdles at each workout. As they improve, they can progress to the next higher
hurdle flight. Most hurdlers do well to warm up with a couple of flights with
the smallest hurdles even though they may have progressed to the higher
heights. In this way, the rhythm is easily learned and the
tendency to jump over the hurdles is diminished, especially by the sixth or
eighth flight when the hurdler's legs are too tired to jump. It is also
important for the hurdler to run 10 meters past the last hurdle to get used to
the finish of the race. The hurdlers will probably begin
running over the hurdles slowly to start with but should start running faster as
they gain confidence and rhythm. They should be encouraged to run fast or sprint
over the hurdles as the objective of the event is to get to the finish line as
fast as possible. Even when warming up over the smaller hurdles, the hurdler
should move his feet very fast. The hurdle race is basically a sprint race and
this should be continually emphasized. Once the hurdlers
have gained confidence and speed running over the hurdles, taking five steps
between the hurdles, rearrange the spacing of the hurdles to enable them to run
with three steps between the hurdles (Table 2).

lane 3

61 cm. height

13 m. to first hurdle

6.5 m. between hurdles

lane 4

69 cm. height

12 m. to first hurdle

7 m. between hurdles

lane 5

76 cm. height

12 m. to first hurdle

7.5 m. between hurdles

lane 6

76 cm. height

12 m. to first hurdle

8 m. between
hurdles

Table 2

There is a great tendency for athletes to
swing the lead leg up over the hurdle, much as a high jumper gets extra lift by
vigorously swinging up his lead leg. The effect is the same. The athlete will
lift up into the air and float over the hurdle thereby interrupting the running
rhythm and slowing the athlete down. If this is a problem, have the athlete
temporarily use one hurdle and concentrate on driving the knee of the lead leg
towards the hurdle using a fast, flicking action of the lead foot to clear the
hurdle and snap the foot back down to the track. This must
be constantly repeated until the action is learned and then have the athlete
return to running hurdle flights. Also continually emphasize the use of a very
high knee action to clear the trail leg. If there is a lot of difficulty
teaching these two points, use the lead leg and trail leg exercises as described
in Single-Leg Exercises below.Driving quickly
forward over the hurdles should be emphasized as should stepping not
jumping over the hurdles

B. Improvement
After a few weeks of practice, the hurdlers should be ready for two actions
necessary to increase the speed of hurdle clearance: leaning towards the
hurdles and driving away from the hurdles. The lean
towards the hurdle and off the hurdle is necessary to counteract the upward,
lifting action of the lead leg. If the action of the lead leg is allowed to lift
the athlete's center of gravity above the horizontal plane of normal running,
horizontal speed will be lost. To teach the lean, instruct
the athletes to lean towards the hurdles with their whole body, hips and chest,
and not to merely duck the head and shoulders over the hurdle. The hurdler
should drive his chest over the thigh of the lead leg and, to further counteract
the thrust of the lead leg, drive the opposite arm in an overemphasized
sprinting action, forward and up. The drive away from the
hurdle with the body and knee of the trail leg is probably the one feature that
distinguishes a good hurdler from a mediocre hurdler. An aggressive drive away
from the hurdle could be considered the secret to good hurdling. Too many
athletes float after clearing the hurdle and thereby add costly time to their
hurdle races.Instruct the hurdlers to drive the trail knee forward into the
stride off the hurdle. The knee should already be in a high position and should
be driven forward at this point. It may also be beneficial to instruct the
hurdlers to lean slightly forward off the hurdle as the lead foot touches the
track so that their hips do not accelerate ahead of their
shoulders. At this time, also, the arm action during
hurdle clearance should be watched. Often hurdlers will use a sideways action of
the arm, introducing a detrimental lateral movement. For a hurdler leading over
the hurdle with his right foot, the left arm should be driven forward and up in
a bent position, thereby forcing the upper body forward and down. As the right
foot is snapped down to the track, the left arm also moves downward and back
into sprinting action and is not flung out to the side. Lateral movement in
hurdling should be avoided and concentration placed on forward movement of the
body and vertical movements of the arms and legs.

C.
Rhythm The object in all technique coaching in hurdles
is to get the athletes sprinting, spending as little time as possible in the air
over the hurdles. The athletes themselves can listen to their footfalls and
judge if their rhythm is good or not. A constant, fast rhythm of footfalls is to
be strived for, not a fast patter with a pause at each hurdle.

D.
Starts For the average hurdler, an eight-stride runup
to the first hurdle is normal. For a crouch start, the hurdler's lead foot over
the hurdle should be the back foot in the blocks. For a standing start, the foot
of the trail leg should be directly behind the starting line. For an unusually
fast, tall and strong sprinter, the runup !o the first hurdle may be able to be
one stride shorter, therefore making the positions of the feet opposite in the
starting position. A common fault among hurdlers is to
take one step out of the blocks and then lift the head to look at the first
hurdle and come to an erect running position too soon. The start for a hurdler
should be almost the same as that for a sprinter: shoulders low, knees and legs
driving hard to propel the body forward. The hurdler should not look up to the
hurdle crossbar until third or fourth stride and should try to skim over the
hurdle as low as possible in order not to lose the acceleration of a fast sprint
start.

SINGLE-LEG EXERCISES

Lead Leg To teach the proper movement of
the lead leg, have the athlete stand four (of their) feet from a solid wall.
Instruct them to stand on the takeoff foot and lean forward toward the wall from
the toes, then drive the knee of the lead leg towards the wall quickly snapping
up the foot of the lead leg to contact the wall at a point 75 to 110 cm (2½ - 3½
ft.) from the ground-depending upon the height of the hurdles to be cleared plus
25 cm. (ca. 10 inches). The athlete returns to the
starting position and does it again repeatedly, trying to get the chest forward
and down towards the thigh of the lead leg. Look to make sure he is driving the
knee towards the wall and not a straight leg. The arm opposite to the lead foot
should be driven forward and up in an exaggerated sprinting action to balance
the high drive of the lead foot.

Trail Leg To teach the correct
movement of the trail leg, instruct the athletes to stand with their toes five
(of their own) feet from the wall and then lean against the wall with both hands
a little above shoulder height. They then place the toes of their trail leg on
the ground as far away from the wall as possible and pull the knee of the trail
leg forward and up out to the side in a circular motion with the foot following
and then pawing the ground slightly ahead of and to the side of the lead-leg
foot on the ground. They should do three circular motions with the trail leg,
stop, then repeat several times to learn the rhythm.

These two exercises should be incorporated
into the warm-up of every workout for beginners in their first year of
hurdling.

TRAINING FOR HURDLES

Hurdlers are sprinters and should always do sprint
training coupled with hurdle practicing. They should always include flexibility and stretching exercises in their warm-ups with special attention to the
hamstrings, hips and trunk. During the spring and summer, one workout per week
at least should include full-out sprints over flights of four or more hurdles
from the blocks. If possible, these practices should be
run with competition. If another hurdler of the same ability is not available,
run them against a sprinter. To improve stamina, the hurdler should do interval
training with the sprinters.

CORRECTING PROBLEMS

Often coaches are presented with the task of
re-teaching proper hurdle technique to an athlete who is hurdling incorrectly,
whether that athlete is jumping the hurdles, over-striding, swinging the lead
leg up, sitting on top of the hurdle, pulling the trail knee through low or a
myriad of other faults. Generally the athlete will spend too much time in the
air over the hurdles and the following three steps have a dum-da-dum rhythm
instead of a quick da-da-da or 1-2-3 action-in other words, a quick, even
three-stride action between the hurdles. To remedy the
problem, first reduce the height of the hurdles to a height easily cleared
without jumping and reduce the distance between the hurdles so that the athlete
does not have to overstride but can run relaxed and quickly. At this point, work
on the technique corrections needed. Once the athlete is
sprinting over the hurdles with the correct technique, gradually increase the
distance between the hurdles to approach the specified distance for the age
group of the athlete. Use four hurdles. Keep looking for relaxed, fast sprinting
between the hurdles. Then gradually raise the height of the hurdles (1.5" at a
time) until the athlete is hurdling at the specified height for
racing. Be alert to any changes away from a sprinting
rhythm. If problems occur with the clearance technique while doing the
increases, revert to hurdling over three hurdles set to allow five steps between
the hurdles. In this way, the athlete has more time between hurdles to
concentrate on the clearance technique for each hurdle.